HSE and Seoul National University Sign Cooperation Agreement

On July 17, 2017, HSE signed a memorandum of understanding on academic and research cooperation with Seoul National University (SNU). It covers joint research, joint projects, student and staff visits, as well as the sharing of academic resources.

Seoul National University (SNU) is one of South Korea’s leading universities, founded after WWII as a merger of ten educational institutions. SNU is the country’s largest university and is in the Top-50 on the QS global university ranking.

HSE’s cooperation with SNU began in 2011, when SNU professors started giving lectures at the HSE Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs. In 2012, HSE Rector Yaroslav Kuzminov delivered a lecture at SNU, and two years later the universities agreed a student exchange programme.

Today, a group of students from Seoul is studying at the HSE Summer University, where they have an opportunity to take courses from various educational programmes, learn more about Russia, and also learn Russian.

Yaroslav Kuzminov said that, to date cooperation between SNU and HSE covered social sciences and economics. After the memorandum, the universities plan to further develop partnerships between their engineering and computer science departments, increase the number of exchange students, launch double degree programmes, and carry out joint research.

Dr. Nak-in Sung, head of the Korean delegation, stressed that HSE is one of Russia’s strongest educational institutions, and said it is the only university in Moscow that offers Korean studies. ‘We must reinforce this exchange, our friendship, and academic cooperation’, he said.

Thanks to this memorandum of understanding on academic and research cooperation with SNU, HSE is launching an institutional all-university strategic partnership with SNU, said Marina Batalina, head of the HSE International Cooperation Office.